Carrot-Oat Cake Bars

Who doesn't love a yummy, healthy snack?  This recipe was originally submitted from Whole Foods (best grocery store ever!!) and I figured I would try it out because I had been wanting to make a healthy recipe, since my family and I have had a little too many unhealthy things lately. (especially sweets....shocker, right?).  I love the hearty texture of this cake/bar.  It kind of reminds me of the Carrot Cake Lara Bar...only my recipe is wayyyy better.  The only fat in it is the coconut and nuts (which are healthy fats!), and a tiny bit of butter in the powdered sugar frosting - if you choose to use it. Everything else is made with extremely healthy ingredients!  This can be served for breakfast, dessert, or simply an anytime snack.  I had it warm for dessert with a powdered sugar frosting from my heavenly spice cake bars (found here) and at room temperature the next morning for breakfast with my healthy, yogurt glaze from my incredible, healthy carrot cake recipe (found here).  These bars only lasted a few hours in my house!  They are so perfect for on-the-go snacking as well!

Ingredients:

1 cup raisins

orange juice - enough to completely cover the raisins

Cooking spray 

1 cup rolled or quick cooking oats 

1 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds)

1 cup whole wheat flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

2 cups grated carrots 

1/2 cup pure maple syrup 

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sweetened finely shredded coconut 

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly oil a (9-inch) square baking pan with cooking spray and set it aside. 


Cover raisins with orange juice in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil, simmer for about 20 minutes, or until big and plump.  Drain and cool.


Pulse oats and nuts in a food processor until coarsely ground. Transfer to a large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt and mix well. In a second large bowl, combine carrots, maple syrup, honey, applesauce, drained raisins, coconut and vanilla. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture and stir until completely incorporated. Transfer to prepared pan and bake until cooked through and deep golden brown, about 40 -60 minutes.  Set aside to let cool before cutting into squares.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Frost if desired.

Warm with the powdered sugar glaze...












Made in muffin tins with the Greek yogurt yogurt glaze, topped with nuts and raisins (chilled)....

Whole Wheat Ginger Snaps

These cookies are perfect in every way.  But I - unfortunately - did not come up with the recipe.  I found them on Allrecipe here.  I definitely recommend cooking them JUST until they crack for a super soft, moist cookie.  I don't understand why people like hard, crunchy cookies....soft is a billion times better!  The whole wheat flour and molasses give these such a rich, flavorful flavor.  And rolling the dough in sugar gives them a delightful, sugary coating.  I've never had a cookie with as much flavor than these...they're spicy and rich and oh-so-delicious.  The day after I made them, I took the last two cookies I had left over and made them into a sandwich with a big spoonful of Nutella slathered in between and took it to school.  Sorry I don't have a picture of it...I ate it before I had a chance. You have no idea how happy that cookie sandwich made me...I was seriously freaking out because of how good it was.  My friends were like..."what the heck?"  You'll just have to try it yourself if you don't believe me. (;

Favorite Gingerbread

  

Gingerbread...it's really not all that great, right? I mean c'mon, who has ever had a really good gingerbread?  Everybody knows that gingerbread cookies are the least tasty of all types of cookies.  And most gingerbread loaves are kind of dry and just average tasting.  Even the one at Starbucks isn't that good. 

That is what I thought before I made this gingerbread cake.

Now whenever I think of gingerbread, I think of this recipe.  It is the best gingerbread I have ever tasted.  Way better than Starbucks.  My dad and I ate nearly the entire loaf in one sitting - while putting chocolate sauce, ice cream, and whipped cream on the slices (oh yeah, we were stuffed).  It's so moist and full of flavor with spices.  I definitely recommend having it warm with these toppings, but it is delicious plain too.  It's also heavenly chilled or room temperature with cream cheese frosting.  I was planning on having a slice with orange cream cheese frosting once it cooled, but there wasn't enough left to make it for!  This is perfect with a cup of coffee in the morning as well.  And it makes great gifts during the holiday season.  This is everyone's holiday favorite...even the busy cooks (like me!) because it's so easy to make.

Yield: one 9-inch cake or one large loaf

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch square pan or a loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, and then the molasses.
3. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
4. Bake 40-50 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple and Ginger Buttercream Frosting

I recently took a cooking class called "The Art of Cupcakes," by Chef Wynton Mann (you can check out his site at www.wyntonsworld.com), and it was so much fun!  We made five different types of incredibly delicious cupcakes: these, banana nut cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting, chocolate cupcakes with strawberry mascarpone cream cheese-filling and chocolate cream cheese frosting, honey pear cupcakes with white chocolate and pistachio buttercream frosting, and vanilla coffee cupcakes with tiramisu filling and coffee buttercream frosting.  I know you're probably drooling right now just reading over that. Imagine actually biting into them.  They were all sooo good...not one of them was even close to forgettable.  And none of the recipes are available online, so I guess you'll just have to make them all from my blog(:

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs, at room temperature
8 oz. canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil


For the Frosting:
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz. butter, room temperature
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon ginger, powder
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted


Directions:
For the Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
3.  In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
4. In another larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil.
5. Add the flour and stir until combined.
6. Divide the batter among the prepared tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.


For the Frosting:
1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the butter and beat until combined. Add the maple syrup and ginger and beat to combine.  Add 1.5 cups of the sugar and beat on low speed until combined.  
2.  Optional: add up to 1/2 cup more of sugar so that the frosting is thick.

Chocolate Gingerbread Toffee Cake

This may be the best cake I've ever had.  I made this for Christmas dessert yesterday, and it is absolutely outstanding. Oh..and just a warning: it makes a very large cake.  There's only 3 people in my family, and we've probably cut about 10 slices out of it, and there's still over half a cake left. I guess it's because it's 3 layers instead of the usual two. We even freezed some of it to save for the future, since we didn't want it to go bad. It took some time to prepare, but it was TOTALLY worth it...and lots of fun to make. This was on the cover of the December issue of Southern Living, and it was the winning recipe for the annual white cake recipe.  My cake did not turn out looking quite as perfect as the one on the magazine (be sure to refrigerate it after you fill the layers ASAP or else the melted ganache will pull the cake apart and may break some pieces...) - but hey, it's the taste that counts, right?  First, you start off by making 3 layers of gingerbread cake.  Melted chocolate chips, softened butter, sour cream, and hot water make it exceptionally moist.  And the molasses, spices, and vanilla give it a perfectly spiced flavor.  After the cakes have cooled, you make the silky ganache.  And this is what makes the cake so rich; it's mainly chocolate chips, butter, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream. Wow...now that sounds like a heart attack just waiting to happen.  But we're not even done yet.  As you slather the ganache between the cake layers,  you'll also sprinkle a generous amount of toffee bits on top. Pop it in the fridge for a few hours, and then spread on the "icing on the cake": the ginger whipped cream. I didn't think ginger would taste very good in whipped cream, but it's absolutely heavenly.  Especially since it uses fresh ginger (I'm not sure how dried ginger would have tasted, but I'm definitely sticking to fresh when I make this whipped cream). After all those hours preparing this cake, and when you finally take a bite, it will taste like "all the wonderful flavors that come tumbling from a stocking: milk chocolate santas, gingerbread men, and buttery toffee candy."


You can find this spectacular recipe here.

Apple Almond Gingerbread

This is inspired from one of Whole Foods' (my absolute favorite grocery store...I could spend hours in there) recipes on their website, and I was really surprised at how amazing it turned out. I altered it slightly by making it a little more low fat, but you can't tell at all.  I can't believe something so healthy can taste so delicious.  First off: it's 100% whole wheat.  It also has apples and almonds which give the bread a delicious and nutritious crunch.  The molasses mixed with the whole wheat flour gives it an incredible richness that reminded me of sticky bread.  The only not-so-healthy ingredient is butter, but it's only a few spoonfuls. I'm gonna try adding some almond extract the next time I make it..I think it would give it a nice almond flavor.  But it's perfect as it is. This is a great holiday bread, and the wonderful aroma of spices fill the house while it's baking.  I recommend serving it when it's warm with a scoop of whipped cream.

Ingredients:

2.5 tablespoons butter, melted

2.5 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup slivered almonds, divided* 
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk (i used low fat)
1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
1/2 cup sugar 
1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
1 egg 
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour 
1 tablespoon ground ginger 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 
1 apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped (I used pink ladies)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch loaf pan. Put 1/4 cup almonds in bottom of pan and then rotate pan to distribute them around the bottom and sides (they'll stick to the greased pan); set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, molasses, sugar, butter, vanilla and egg. In a second large bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda and remaining 1/2 cup almonds. Add apples and toss well. Stir flour mixture into molasses mixture and then spoon batter into pan. Bake until cooked through and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes and then invert onto a plate and serve warm or at room temperature.

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

This past Halloween, my family didn't have time to carve pumpkins, so I decided to use them to cook with instead.  This was the first year that I had ever used fresh pumpkin.  I heard from a lot of people that fresh pumpkin really does make a big difference in recipes, but I never bothered to try it....until this year that is.  This was the first recipe I made using fresh pumpkin, adapted from a Taste of Home Cookie Cookbook I have, and they turned out sooo delicious!!! These are probably my #1 favorite cookie recipe.  They are the most irresistible cookies I've ever eaten...it's seriously impossible to have just one.  The cookie dough is incredible also.  They remind me of pumpkin pie, but ten times better because they have chunks of white chocolate, crunchy pecans, and a melt-in-your-mouth glaze.  They're so moist and taste to-die-for even after the first day.  I brought these to a huge cross country banquet and they were one of the few desserts that were completely eaten.  All my friends asked for the recipe.  It's because of these cookies that they declared me the "master chef".  I even got an award to prove it.

Yield: about 4 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin  (canned is fine too)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice or ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 package white chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 
  BROWN SUGAR FROSTING:
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions:

• 1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and pumpkin. 
• 2. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chips and pecans.
• 3. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes or until firm. Remove to wire racks to cool.
• 4. For frosting, combine brown sugar and butter in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook over medium heat for 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Cool for 10 minutes. Add milk; beat until smooth. Beat in enough confectioners' sugar to reach desired consistency. Spread over cooled cookies. 

Spice Cake Bars (low fat!)

     This is the best spice cake I've ever had.  There is absolutely nothing low-fat tasting about it.  I was seriously blown away when I had my first bite...I figured it would just be an average, low fat spice bread...nothing special about it - but boy was I wrong.  These were incredible!!!  Not only are they the best spice cake I've ever had, but they're the best cake bar as well.  They taste just like carrot cake but with out the carrots.  They're perfectly moist, and not spongy at all (like most low fat cakes).  The spices are balanced so well, and they make these bars have a fantastic flavor.  They don't even need frosting..you can just sprinkle them with confectioners sugar if you prefer.  But I would definitely recommend frosting.  On a scale from 1 to 10, the frosting transforms these already 10 rated bars to a 20.  I'm not exaggerating.  These are deadly good when still warm from the oven, and the frosting melts all over it.  Mmmm....I am definitely going to make these again very soon.

Yield: about 16 bars (1 9x13 inch pan)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice or ground cloves
•  
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in applesauce. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices; stir into the applesauce mixture until well blended. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Cool in the pan over a wire rack.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and margarine. Stir in vanilla and milk until smooth. Spread over cooled bars before cutting into squares.